Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image capture apparatuses and control methods thereof, and particularly relates to automatic focus detection (AF) techniques.
Description of the Related Art
Recent image capture apparatuses include automatic focus detection (AF) functions, but there are some scenes that AF functions handle poorly. As such, an image capture apparatus is known in which in the case where a mode has been set for capturing a scene that an AF function handles poorly, such as a starry sky scene, a focus lens is driven to an infinity position set in advance, rather than using the AF function (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-15629).
However, a configuration that drives a focus lens to a pre-set infinity position cannot handle changes in the infinity position caused by aging, environmental temperature, changes in the camera orientation, and so on, resulting in cases where a well-focused image cannot be obtained.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2014-2197 proposes reducing a number of pixel additions performed when generating an image for use in AF beyond a number normally used so as to suppress changes in frequency components caused by the pixel addition and improve the accuracy of the AF in the case where a point light source is the dominant subject, such as in a night scene. However, reducing the number of pixel additions also reduces an effect of reducing random noise in dark areas, resulting in a problem where the AF accuracy is easily affected by the random noise.